The Hunt
1996 - 2003
(Part 1 of 2*)

Yahoo! What a story.

While reading a sports magazine back in 1996, I happened upon a small sidebar story about unusual sports collectibles. The short article focused on the amazing amount of non-traditional collectibles that popular sports stars seem to generate. And what caught my eye was that the author mentioned candy bars named after Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr., and Frank 'The Big Hurt' Thomas. Now, at that point, I should have guessed after Big Frank won back-to-back AL MVP awards, someone would've offered him that opportunity. (Actually, what's most surprising is that bandwagon-jumpers Wheaties Cereal DIDN'T make a deal with Frank when everyone was knocking on his endorsement door, but that's another story)

So, I started off my search innocently enough, thinking that it would only be a short time before I got my hands on an example. I mean it's only a candy bar.

Reality check - it took seven years.

(I actually figured this next part out) I'm not exaggerating - this is absolutely the honest truth:

It took more than 53 Days of continuous, non-stop, searching before I finally lucked out and got my example. This is based on 30 minutes a day, every single day, over the course of 7 years of searching. Throw in the days that I spent more than an hour on The Hunt and I'm willing to bet that it was over three months of non-stop searching. Remember, what we're talking about is this: You sit down on the computer. Without taking a break, not going to sleep, not stretching, not glancing away from the screen for even a split second, not eating, not drinking, not going to the bathroom, and not moving a single muscle - continously - for three months straight. That's the equivalent of how long I searched.

Eventually I contacted every single dealer in Chicago. I actually purchased a Chicago phonebook from Verizon, this was when they were known as GTE, just so I could pinpoint every dealer in Frank's town. I dialed up every card and sports memorabilia dealer listed and then - pretty much every dealer in upper Illinois. Finally, I eventually called every major dealer across the nation. No joke. I contacted every dealer who ever listed their business in the monthly Beckett and Tuff Stuff classified sections. Most were unaware that Frank ever had a candy bar, and some were even resentful that I wasted their time talking about it. But the majority were friendly enough, even though they didn't think I would find something that in all likelihood was thrown away by the very people who might've purchased a bar back then.

Speaking globally, I contacted dealers in: Japan (that was a lot of laughs - the guy barely spoke any English and my fourth-generation Japanese isn't going win me any awards), Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, one dealer in Scotland (who thought I was crazy, or as he put it, "Yah CRRRAZhee maHn."), one dealer in Spain and one in France. I reached out to candy fans, candy clubs, candy forums, candy manufacturers, candy organizations, candy distributors, and candy-anything --- just for a crumb of a lead to follow.

Want to hear something really interesting? (you can skip this paragraph if you're not interested in an off-topic rant) It was something I discovered after doing non-stop searches. When I first got on the net in early 1997 I was introduced to Google by a good friend. This was back in the day - when almost no one heard of Google. It's interesting, after years of continual use, I discovered something weird: Searches, even on a daily basis, changes. I'm not kidding. If you hunt for say, 'Elvis Presley Wall Clocks', and search every day, even though your search criteria doesn't change, you're going to get a different set of pages. Now the typical reason given is that Google, like any search engine, is constantly evolving because their spiders are adding pages. But what I'm telling you is that if you search one day and jot down a page, the next day that same page won't show up on the list. Or maybe it'll show up way down the hierarchy. It's a strange thing to hunt for the same thing every day and sometimes seeing the same page over and over again - then suddenly - that same page is gone, or so far down the list that for all practical purposes it's disappeared. We're not talking about a page being dumped because Google (and I presume all engines) will show pages that are long gone; stuff that's been taken off the web for years will still show up on a search and only when you click on the link do you see the 404 error. What I'm talking about is when an active page gets moved by the engine, one day here, the next day there, the day after that it's gone entirely, only to show up the fourth day in the same place you saw it on the first day. <g>

Anyway, I tell you all that because it's this very situation that led me to 'The Wheaties King'. It was the FIRST TIME in all that searching that Google finally deposited a nugget of gold in my pan - a genuine lead. I finally found someone who, not only knew what I was talking about, but actually against all odds, had an extra sample for sale.

In fact, when we were negotiating for a price and he suggested $5 for an unopened chocolate bar, I told him flat out that I would offer him 3X that amount without further discussion. He was shocked. I don't think he expected to hear me offer him more money than he was asking. Truth be told, if he had asked for $100 - I would have paid it and paid it gladly - just to stop searching. I was so freaking tired of looking for this damn candy bar. Again, if the truth be told...after a while I did it (searching for the bar) more out of spite than out of joy. I was like a dog with a bone that was just out of reach - I just couldn't let go.

Now, that's not to say I don't get great joy from seeing this bad boy crossed off my checklist. But there's definitely a bit of resentment that goes along with it. Like, "Why did I waste so much time desperately searching for something that is completely insane to 99% of the world's population?" <laughing> I mean - it's not like anyone is going to give me a medal or have a parade because I found one. This was obsession - pure and simple. Once I get a burr under my saddle - I won't stop until I get rid of it.

*UPDATE!
As I'm typing this it is now: November 15, 2003
This is a special update to The Hunt. If you're interested please click here.

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